The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Eli Lilly Gets Lobbying Help from Covington on Patent Issues

The pharmaceutical company behind Cialis and Cymbalta has added Covington & Burling lawyers in Washington to its multi-million dollar roster of lobbyists.

The lawyers are advocating for Eli Lilly and Co. on "[t]rade compliance issues related to [Canada's] patentability requirements," according to lobbying registration paperwork filed with Congress on Tuesday. Lilly and other drug makers are having difficulties securing Canada's approval for patents that the United States and other countries have validated, said Covington partner Marney Cheek, one of the lobbyists on the account.

Under World Trade Organization rules, inventions should receive patents if they are new, not obvious and useful. But Canada is denying patents for pharmaceuticals under its usefulness test if drug makers don't provide data on human clinical trials in their initial patent applications, Cheek said.

Feds Argue Injury Needed to Sue Consumer Financial Agency

It's not enough to dislike the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - if you want to try to dismantle it via a lawsuit, first you need to suffer an actual injury because of it.

That, in essence, was the argument made by the federal government in a motion to dismiss a suit filed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Texas bank, the 60 Plus Association and three states for lack of standing.

"Despite the roving allegations of unconstitutionality set forth in the Amended Complaint, not one of the statutorily authorized actions that Plaintiffs speculate might someday cause them harm has yet occurred," states the motion, which lists an eye-popping 29 government lawyers as counsel and was signed by Wendy Doty, a trial attorney in the Justice Department's federal programs branch. "Because Plaintiffs have failed to allege any actual or imminent injury…Plaintiffs will suffer no hardship at this time in the absence of judicial intervention."

Judge Dismisses Former Fannie Mae Controller from Securities Class Case

Leanne Spencer, the former controller for Fannie Mae, was dismissed yesterday from a federal securities class action in Washington against the mortgage giant, making her the third former executive to win summary judgment since September.

U.S District Judge Richard Leon found that the plaintiffs, former Fannie Mae shareholders, failed to present enough evidence that Spencer acted with the intent to deceive. Fannie Mae is accused of manipulating earnings and violating established accounting principles; Spencer individually was accused of making false statements about the company's practices and misleading investors.

"Plaintiffs' theories on Spencer's scienter are insufficient to withstand her summary judgment motion, particularly in light of the overwhelming evidence of Spencer's good faith," Leon said in his opinion (PDF).

D.C. Judicial Nominee Tells Senate Committee He's Prepared for Job

District of Columbia Superior Court associate judge nominee Robert Okun told a Senate committee Tuesday that a judge's most important qualities are temperament and preparation, and that he is familiar with handling a high work load and pro se litigants, requirements of the position.

"As an assistant U.S. attorney, in the U.S. attorney's office, I've spent a lot of time in the courtroom, and I'm used to making decisions quickly and thinking on my feet," Okun said while testifying on Capitol Hill before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Ultimately, a judge's job is to get it right, no matter how long it takes, Okun said. But a judge can increase efficiency for a high caseload without affecting accuracy by working hard outside the courtroom and knowing the case beforehand.

D.C. Attorney Ethics Board Recommends Disbarment of Defense Lawyer

An attorney ethics board in Washington is recommending the disbarment of a longtime criminal defense lawyer who was convicted this summer in federal district court here on charges he manufactured a scheme to dupe jurors.

The attorney, Charles Daum, a member of the District of Columbia bar since 1978, was convicted in June following a bench trial in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Daum, prosecutors said, orchestrated a scheme that involved staged photographs to trick jurors into thinking another person, and not his client, had control over drugs.

Daum's lawyer, David Schertler of Washington's Schertler & Onorato, unsuccessfully argued that Daum's client, a man named Delante White, was the person who devised and executed the scheme. White and others testified at trial that that Daum was the brainchild of the plot. Prosecutors uncovered the plan after a mistrial in White's case. Daum was charged last year.

The D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility this month said in a report Daum should be disbarred for the conviction of a crime of moral turpitude. Daum was convicted on charges that included obstruction of justice and subornation of perjury. Disbarment, the board said, is mandatory under the circumstance of the offense.

The Morning Wrap

Insider Trading: The arrest of a former hedge fund portfolio manager in one of the most lucrative insider trading schemes ever indicates that prosecutors may be setting their sights higher, the Associated Press reports.

Due Diligence?: When Hewlett Packard acquired Autonomy last year for $11.1 billion, some 15 different financial, legal and accounting firms were involved in the transaction - and none raised a flag about what HP said was a major accounting fraud, Reuters reports.

Labor Complaint: A union-backed group of Wal-Mart workers, OUR Walmart, said on Tuesday that it had filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, asserting that Wal-Mart was making illegal threats to deter its employees from participating in protests scheduled for Black Friday, The New York Times reports. Also, the Times reports that Hostess Brands failed to reach a labor deal with a mediator.

Warren Rudman, Dead at 82, Played Key Role in Souter Confirmation

Former U.S. Senator Warren Rudman, who played a key role in the confirmation of retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, died Monday of complications from lymphoma, the Associated Press has reported. He was 82.

Rudman, a Republican, was attorney general for New Hampshire before being elected to represent the state in the Senate in 1980. It was 10 years later that, Souter, his longtime friend and former deputy in the state attorney general’s office, would be nominated to the Supreme Court.

Soon after Souter was nominated in 1990, scattered rumors appeared in print that the lifelong bachelor was gay. Souter was so outraged that he tried to phone President George H.W. Bush and have his name withdrawn, according to a National Law Journal account. Rudman had to physically restrain and settle Souter down with a scotch before he agreed to stay on. Women he had dated came forward, and the rumor receded.

D.C. Appeals Court Tosses Police Whistleblower Retaliation Claims

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals recently sided with D.C. government officials embroiled in a seven-year dispute with police officers who had alleged violations of the city's whistleblower protection law.

In an opinion (PDF) published November 15, the court vacated a judgment in favor of one of the officers who sued, concluding that the jury was wrong to find that he had a valid claim under the whistleblower protection law. The court also upheld a trial judge's decision at an earlier stage of proceedings to grant the city summary judgment on claims brought by five other officers involved in the case.

City officials praised the decision. D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan said in a statement that he was gratified that the court had recognized "the officers' patent misuse of [the] District's Whistleblower Protection Act in this lawsuit." But police union head Kristopher Baumann said in a statement that the ruling "eviscerates" protections for city government employees.

Covington Assisting South Korea on Visa Issue

After Covington & Burling helped Australians secure greater access to the U.S. workplace in 2005, South Korea has called on the firm to do the same for its citizens.

The South Korean embassy in Washington has hired Covington to develop a professional visa legislative proposal, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act documents the firm filed last week with the U.S. Justice Department. Covington also will create "corresponding justifications for the legislation based on the unique attributes of the U.S.-Korea economic partnership, as evidenced in the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement," the paperwork says. The embassy and Covington entered into the $90,000 contract on November 14, less than a year after the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement went into effect.

"They're our partners trying to give us advice and help us with this initiative," which is still under development, said Ilbum Kim, first secretary of the embassy's economic section.

Barnes & Thornburg Adds IP Partner in Washington

Updated at 4 p.m.

Barnes & Thornburg has strengthened its D.C. office with the addition of a new partner.

Jordan Weinstein, previously with Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, will join Barnes‘ intellectual property department.

His practice focuses on counseling, licensing and litigation in U.S. and international trademark, copyright, unfair competition, Internet and high-technology matters.

Weinstein has spent more than a decade as an arbitrator for domain name disputes under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.